Star Wars_ Young Jedi Knights 06_ Jedi Under Siege - Kevin J. Anderson [3]
We can crush their very hearts, not merely breach their defenses."
Brakiss smiled, looking up to meet the glowing yellow eyes of the Emperor. "And when we defeat them utterly with the powers of the dark side, the remainder of the Rebels will scatter and hide, trembling at their own nightmares, as we recapture what is rightfully ours."
The Emperor's holographic face did something frighteningly unusual. The withered, puckered lips curled in a satisfied smile.
"Very well. It shall be as you request, Brakiss-Jedi against Jedi. You may begin your assault when ready."
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THE SHADOW ACADEMY dropped its cloaking device, dissolving its shield of invisibility. As the spiked station appeared over Yavin 4, two specially equipped TIE fighters dropped out of its launching bay. Silently moving in tandem, they plunged into the misty atmosphere.
The fighters had been coated with a stealth hull plating to blur their sensor signatures, and the output from their high-powered twin ion engines had been damped. Their mission was to strike in secret, not to provide a show of force.
Commander Orvak swooped into the lead, while the second TIE fighter, flown by his subordinate Dareb, flanked him. Together, they shot around the small moon and skimmed lower into the atmosphere, spiraling entirely around the equator back to the coordinates of the ancient temple ruins where Skywalker had established his Jedi academy.
Orvak flew with the controls gripped in his black-gloved hands. He felt the quiet thrumming of the Imperial fighter's engines as if he were riding an untamed beast of burden. He piloted with careful concentration, dancing on the air currents, buffeted by thermal updrafts from the jungle below.
"Keep steady," he muttered to himself. This conunando run would require the utmost precision and piloting skill. Along with a new batch of TIE
fighter trainees chosen from the ranks of young stormtroopers, Orvak had completed the simulations over and over again enroute to the Yavin system.
But this was the real thing. Now the Emperor was depending on him.
Massassi trees formed a chaotic carpet of green below. Gnarled branches thrust above the thick canopy like monster claws. Orvak glided in low, watching the wake of his passage disturb treetop creatures who fled from the blast of his hot exhaust.
His companion Dareb spoke over a tight line-of-sight beamed channel. The other pilot's words were encrypted and descrambled by a special coding system in Orvak's cockpit. "Long-range sensors are picking up the protective energy field, " Dareb said. "The shield generators are right where our covert information said they would be."
"Target verified," Orvak acknowledged, speaking into the microphone built into his helmet. "Lord Brakiss, who endured some time here, knows much of the layout of the Jedi academy itself-if the Rebels haven't moved things around."
"Why would they?" Dareb said. "They're far too complacent, and we are about to show them their folly."
"Just don't show me your folly," Orvak said. "Enough chatter. Head for the target."
The invisible shields hovered like a protective umbrella over a section of jungle where a river sliced through the trees and an ancient-looking stone pyramid rose majestically - Orvak hoped that by the end of this day Skywalker's Great Temple would no longer be standing.
But before the Shadow Academy could begin the primary assault, Orvak and Dareb had to complete their preliminary mission: to knock out that shield generator and open the doors wide for a devastating attack.
Orvak checked his sensors. In the infrared and other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, he could see the deadly ripples of the